The National High Speed Rail Corp. Ltd (NHSRCL) opened the technical bids for one of its biggest tenders for a substantial part of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) corridor’s alignment and four stations on Wednesday.
This involves bids for the design and construction of the 237 km length of the high-speed mainline from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.
This tender covers about 47 per cent of the total alignment of 508 km between Vapi and Vadodara in the state of Gujarat including four stations, viz. Vapi, Billimora, Surat and Bharuch, 24 rivers and 30 road crossings. This entire section is in Gujarat state where more than 83 per cent of the land has already been acquired for the project.
A total of three bidders involving seven major infrastructure companies have participated in the competitive bidding. These include a consortium of Afcons Infrastructure Ltd, IRCON International Ltd and JMC Projects India Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd and a consortium of NCC Ltd, Tata Project Ltd and J Kumar Infra Projects Ltd.
The MAHSR project is projected to create more than 90,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction phase. Besides, the ecosystem for the production and manufacturing of components for the project is also expected to gain traction with the project.
It is estimated that nearly 7.5 million tonnes (MT) of cement, 2.1 (MT) of steel, and 140,000 MT of structural steel will get utilised in the construction, with everything being produced in India. The market for large construction machinery is also likely to majorly benefit from the project.